of interest to no one

[F3BZ]

those of you with 88/89 cars may have wondered what the square depression in the dash panel above the fuse cover is for. there is a color matched plastic button that covers a hole in the base of this depression. the early NA cars made use of the European 121 dash molding until it was re-designed for the EFI cars which eliminated this and unfortunately the coin cavity to the right of the steering column. some of the markets that the 121 was being sold in requiring a catalytic converter and to avoid overheating it the carburetor used a semi automatic choke for cold starts. this cavity is where the choke handle was mounted. for whatever reasons, Ford eliminated the need for the choke while still meeting EPA requirements. maybe a full depress on the accelerator took the place of pulling out the choke.
here is a brief description of the choke operation. apparently it was a set and forget system that returned the choke plate to full open automatically as the engine warmed.

[lessersivad]

I figured it was probably a choke handle hole. I didn't know it was all that fancy/techy tho.

Thanks for posting the info.

[Festiva_Fred]

Neat!

[TominMO]

If you have a Weber carb, you can convert it to manual choke and use that hole. Kinda cool to do the old-school choke method.

[bravekozak]

Of great interest to me. It might be an elegant way of holding a completely manual choke against two strong springs on my twin carbies. I like electromagnets. My current cable is supposed to hold its place when I twist the choke knob after pulling it. It does not! I wonder if the 93 dash reinforcement cage can fit behind the 89 dash?

[theastronaut]

I need that for the idle enrichment circuit on the sidedraft Weber carbs I'm swapping in! Is it available anywhere? I did a google search and only came up with an ended ebay listing.

[Dragonhealer]

That is really interesting! Pretty trick in an analog era, though I am glad to be shed of carbs and points...

Theastronaut, lots of car makers had twin choke cables. The one for late Triumph TR6 (1975-76) may work for you, and is available new from Moss Motors.

[Safety Guy]

This is too cool. I'll have to check the hulk of my first Festiva to see this area. I plan on keeping the dash!

Karl

[F3BZ]

ya the ebay listing ended cause i bought it from the german seller. it was listed for months and i tried to resist because of the price but i'm a sucker for obscure parts and made it a reward for some forced overtime. obsolete from mazda. i don't know how you'd get this to work on Weber carb set up since it works in conjunction with the PTC heater on the stock 1.3 carb although i guess you just don't plug in the magnet part for use on Weber set up. surely someone makes a similar choke kit? maybe from a garden tractor?

[theastronaut]

That is really interesting! Pretty trick in an analog era, though I am glad to be shed of carbs and points...

Theastronaut, lots of car makers had twin choke cables. The one for late Triumph TR6 (1975-76) may work for you, and is available new from Moss Motors.

I know I could get a generic choke cable, just thought this was cool since it's OEM and fits the hole already in my '88.

ya the ebay listing ended cause i bought it from the german seller. it was listed for months and i tried to resist because of the price but i'm a sucker for obscure parts and made it a reward for some forced overtime. obsolete from mazda. i don't know how you'd get this to work on Weber carb set up since it works in conjunction with the PTC heater on the stock 1.3 carb although i guess you just don't plug in the magnet part for use on Weber set up. surely someone makes a similar choke kit? maybe from a garden tractor?

I guess it could be set up to be shut off by an aftermarket temperature switch instead of the original parts? I'll have to keep an out for one!